Jeu et théorie du duende and Sonnets de l’amour obscur et autres poèmes

This new programming by France Culture in the Cour du Musée Calvet is based on the idea that literature, poetry, and theatre are not only weapons but also a way to distance oneself, to “disorient” oneself from current events. “A great writer must dare venture out like Don Quixote,” says Enrique Vila-Matas, special guest for this programme. The audience is therefore invited to a wild ride alongside some emblematic works, in the language of Cervantès but also in that of Diderot. With humour and whimsy, guaranteed.

Jeu et théorie du duende by Federico Garcia Lorca followed by Sonnets de l'amour obscur and other poems

Federico Garcia Lorca brings the program at the Musée Calvet to a close. The poet to whom Fernando Arrabal paid tribute in his film Viva la muerte, is the symbol of a violent, lively, poetic Spain, a land of music and words. Lorca is poetry itself, and his work is an uplifting song that reminds us that art and culture are "the backbone and even the roots" of a society, "more powerful than politics and power", as Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani so aptly puts it. With Jeu et théorie du duende, as well as Sonnets de l'amour obscur, we propose a moment of shared suspense for this July 14th, that "je ne sais quoi" that drives us again and again to enter theaters to live more intensely. "In 1933 and 1934, Federico Garcia Lorca delivered his lecture Jeu et théorie du duende in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. He announced "a simple lesson on the hidden spirit of painful Spain". Attempting to capture the essence of one's country is an ambitious undertaking. The je-ne-sais-quoi that makes up Spain - or rather, Andalusia - is duende. But what is duende? In all its meanings, duende is elusive; Lorca never defines it, nor can it be translated. Lorca draws on many examples: Bach, Teresa of Avila, Giotto, gypsy singers and dancers. All become familiar to us, without any need for erudition, through the voice of the poet. For the lecture itself is a demonstration of duende.

Extracts from the preface by Line Amselem

Spanish poet, writer and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca was born into a liberal Andalusian family in 1899. He showed an early interest in the arts, turning to poetry in 1921. His friends included Dali, Buñuel, Antonio Machado and Pablo Neruda. He published collections of poems, the most famous of which was Romancero gitano in 1928. After a long stay in the United States, where he wrote Poète à New-York, he returned to Spain, where he was appointed director of the La Barraca company, whose mission was to tour the rural provinces, bringing the Spanish classical repertoire to as many people as possible. Lorca staged plays by Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and Cervantes. He went on to write the rural trilogy of Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba. In 1933-1934, his theater met with great success, particularly during a triumphant tour of Noces de sang in Latin America. An anti-fascist, Lorca signed a manifesto against Hitler's Germany in 1933 and hailed the victory of the Front Populaire in France in 1936. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, he left Madrid for Granada, where a Franco uprising broke out just as he arrived. Lorca was shot by Franco's regime on August 19, 1936. Franco's regime decided to ban his works, which were first published in 1953 in a heavily censored version.

With Vladislav Galard, Clothilde Hesme
And with Maya Lopés, student actor with Ensemble 31 of the École Régionale d'Acteurs de Cannes et de Marseille (ERACM)
Directed by Christophe Hocké
Original music by Guillaume Bachelé and Maxence Vandevelde
Reading by Marion Stoufflet
Assistant director Claire Chaineaux
Jeu et théorie du duende is translated from Spanish by Line Amselem and published by Allia
Les Sonnets de l'amour obscur is translated from Spanish by Line Amselem and published by Allia
Acknowledgments Gérard Berréby

Poems from En marge du Poème du cante jondo, Chansons, Dans le bois des cédrats de lune, Graphique de la Petenreda, Poème de la Siguiriya gitane, Poète à New-York, Livre de poèmes, Ombre, Chansons pour finir, Méditation et allégories de l'eau, Rivière bleue, Poème de la Solea, Voyage, Moments du soir, Jets d'eau published in La Pléiade by Gallimard in translations by André Belamich, Jacques Comincioli, Claude Couffon, Robert Marrast, Bernard Sée, Jules Supervielle. La guitare in Poème du chant profond translated by Claude Esteban is published by Aubier.

Jeu et théorie du duende, translated by Line Amselem, is published by Allia.

Sonnet de la douce plainte and Le poète dit la vérité translated by Line Amselem are to be published by Allia in Sonnets de l'amour obscur.

Extracts from Poètes d'aujourd'hui, Federico Garcia Lorca by Louis Parrot, published by Seghers.